Head-To-Head Survey: Acacia Research (NASDAQ:ACTG) versus Brookfield Business Partners (NYSE:BBU)

Brookfield Business Partners (NYSE:BBU) and Acacia Research (NASDAQ:ACTG) are both business services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

85.0% of Brookfield Business Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.7% of Acacia Research shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.7% of Acacia Research shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Brookfield Business Partners and Acacia Research”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Brookfield Business Partners	$27.46 billion	0.10	-$26.00 million	($0.26)	-120.46
Acacia Research	$285.23 million	1.67	$21.68 million	$0.23	21.47

Acacia Research has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Brookfield Business Partners. Brookfield Business Partners is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Acacia Research, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Brookfield Business Partners and Acacia Research, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Brookfield Business Partners	2	0	6	0	2.50
Acacia Research	0	1	1	0	2.50

Brookfield Business Partners currently has a consensus price target of $43.00, suggesting a potential upside of 37.29%. Acacia Research has a consensus price target of $6.00, suggesting a potential upside of 21.53%. Given Brookfield Business Partners’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Brookfield Business Partners is more favorable than Acacia Research.

Risk and Volatility

Brookfield Business Partners has a beta of 1.3, indicating that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Acacia Research has a beta of 0.52, indicating that its stock price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Brookfield Business Partners and Acacia Research’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Brookfield Business Partners	1.41%	2.67%	0.51%
Acacia Research	7.60%	4.11%	3.05%

Summary

Acacia Research beats Brookfield Business Partners on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Brookfield Business Partners

Brookfield Business Partners L.P. is a private equity firm specializing in acquisition. The firm typically invests in business services, infrastructure services, construction, energy, and industrials sector. It prefers to take majority stake in companies. The firm seeks returns of at least 15% on its investments. Brookfield Business Partners L.P. was founded in 2016 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda. Brookfield Business Partners L.P. operates as a subsidiary of Brookfield Corporation.

About Acacia Research

Acacia is a publicly traded (Nasdaq: ACTG) company that is focused on acquiring and operating businesses across the industrial, energy and technology sectors where it believes it can leverage its expertise, significant capital base, and deep industry relationships to drive value. Acacia evaluates opportunities based on the attractiveness of the underlying cash flows, without regard to a specific investment horizon. Acacia operates its businesses based on three key principles of people, process, and performance and has built a management team with demonstrated expertise in research, transactions and execution, and operations and management.